OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Anecdotes Written by William G. Steer
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Barb
DB12251@aol.com
January 15, 1999
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REQUEST FOR PERMISSION:

Hi Judy,
I greatly enjoyed reading your posting to the List.  I was wondering if I
might have your permission to forward it to another Ohio list, Maggie's List,
that is if you're not on it.  
Along with trading genealogy data, there is a lot of this type information and
stories also sent in to share.  I joined to find one person in Ohio and stayed
just for all the good tips, and stories that get posted.

I won't send it until I hear from you, and if you agree, I will forward it
intact.

Thank you for sharing.

Barb   DB12251@aol.com
CA
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THE REPLY:

Hi Barb,

Certainly you may forward my post to Maggie's Ohio list and anywhere else you
think it would be enjoyed.  I am indebted to many folks for enriching my
personal search into the past and am glad to be able to give something back.  

Please send me the address for Maggie's Ohio list so I can check it out, too.

Judy Alberts
JAlberts97@aol.com
Hollywood, Florida
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THE STORIES:

Thanks to Bruce Wood of this list, many months ago I acquired a photocopy of
an old manuscript called "The Little Home Histories In Our Early Homes,
Belmont County, Ohio".  It has given me such pleasure to read about the day-
to-day lives and times of the families that formed the mostly Quaker community
of Belmont County, Ohio from the early 1800's to the early 1900's that the
manuscript covers, and I wanted to share some of that pleasure with those of
you who may also be interested.  Although I am related to many folks whose
names appear throughout the work, the article I am posting here is mainly
about individuals who are not closely related to me.  I just thought the
stories imparted a strong feeling of realism about our ancestors' lives.  The
surnames that will appear below, and the order they will appear in, however
briefly, are:  STEER, GREEN, PICKETT,  HALL, WILSON,
BETTS, NAYLOR, BAILEY, HOYLE, TABER, SMITH, SEARS, VAIL, FRAME,
MILLHOUSE, BUNDY, LIVEZEY, SCHOLFIELD, DOUDNA, WALTON, OVERMAN, HANSON,
EDGERTON.

I warn you in advance that this will be lengthy reading.  But rather than
apologize for excessive use of space, I'll just assume everyone knows how to
use their delete button, if necessary, and I'll plunge onward.  Hope you
enjoy.  

Judy L. Alberts
JAlberts97@aol.com
Hollywood, Florida
___________________________________________________________________

               Anecdotes Written by William G. Steer
James Steer's Oxen--Tramping Out Grain--Making A Flail--Sugar Camp--Sorghum
Molasses--The 1835 Brick School House--Corn Husking--James Frame & George
Washington--The Steer Name--Hazards of Farm Life--The 1910 Girl's Boarding
School 

     JAMES STEER'S OXEN.  When my father, James STEER, bought the
Grandfather William GREEN's farm, he also bought the stock which included
three yoke of oxen and twenty-five head of three-year-old colts.  He sold the
latter at public sale the same year and kept the oxen for a few years.  He
employed a colored man by the name of Sam BETTS to drive them.

     One of the first jobs was to have the sills for the barn hauled.  They
were twelve by twelve and sixty feet long, and came from the "Billy" Doudna
farm on Sandy Ridge.  Another thing of importance was to deliver the stone for
the first bank vault built in Barnesville in 1865.

     The oxen were so well trained that the driver could turn the team and
wagon on Main Street and not leave the side walk.  At one time Father hauled three
loads of coal, one hundred bushels in each, to Barnesville in one day.  The
coal digger helped him to load it.

     In hauling coal to Number Two Schoolhouse, he only used one yoke.  After
getting up the long steep hill and crossing the railroad with seventy bushels,
he stalled on the track.  After going to the rear wheel, with his lifting [up,
he] helped the oxen to get across the track.  The outcome of this incident
caused a report to be circulated that Father had lifted seventy bushels of
coal over the crossing.

     In his prime, it was said that he was the strongest man in the township.

     The names of [the] three yoke were Joe and Jerry, Buck and Berry, and
Bill and Barney.

     TRAMPING OUT GRAIN.  There was plenty of floor space in the large barns
built before and after 1864, so we often used this space to tramp out grain.

     The sheaves were unbound and placed in a circle.  Then we brought in four
or six horses and colts, tying them two and two.  With someone to ride the
leaders and another person in the center to keep the horses in place, they
soon learned how to go.

     Of course, it was necessary to keep a large shovel nearby to remove the
droppings.  It was [also] necessary to use a flail to thresh out that which
was not tramped.

     MAKING A FLAIL.  This was made by taking two sticks of wood about the
size of a fork handle.  One four or five feet and the other two or three feet,
making a knob on the end of the longer one and boring a hole in the shorter
one, the two were tied together with a flexible rope or rawhide.  Thus the
loop on the long piece will turn around when swinging the shorter stick.

     An inexperienced person, if not careful in using the flail, [could
sometimes be struck on the head by the short piece and] need not be surprised.

     SORGHUM MOLASSES.  During the Civil War from 1860 to 1865, no sugar
could be had from the southern states.  To have a substitute, many farmers in
the northern states grew sorghum cane and made molasses.  I remember that it
had been told that Lewis NAYLOR, a Friend of Sandy Ridge, had made as much as
five-thousand gallons in one season.  The most cane Father ever raised in any
one season was six acres -- a colored man and his girls stripping and cutting
and getting it ready to be hauled to the mill located in the basement of the
barn.

     The cane was crushed by a sweep mill containing three upright rollers two
feet in length and one foot in diameter, the juice being conveyed by gravity
in an open spout to the boiling shed one-hundred or more feet below.  From the
storage box, the juice was drawn into the first pan for boiling, made by
nailing sheet iron to wooden sides.  It was allowed to boil only a little in
one end so that the green scum could be taken off.  It was necessary to feed
this to the hogs before it fermented or it would make them drunk.

     The juice was drawn from the first pan into a settling box and then on to
the finishing pan, made of solid cast iron ten feet long, three feet wide, with
flaring sides one foot high and an opening in one end two by six inches to
draw the molasses into the collecting box.

     This was done with a board six inches in width to fit the pan, which
shoved the molasses to the end, being careful to have a vessel with juice to follow up
the board.  This to keep the pan from burning.  One year when we had a large
surplus, it was sold in Wheeling, West Virginia for $1.25 a gallon.  A day's
work was about seventy gallons of molasses.  The management at the shed was
generally by the women.  Our cousin, Ruth BAILEY, was a very good helper.

     On the return trip from Wheeling, we met some men on horseback who had
just crossed Wheeling Creek and reported the water so high that it would not be
safe to cross.  Father thought with his strong team, he would try it.  So when
we came to the stream, I tied the pony I had rode twenty-five miles bareback,
to the wagon.  We got safely across, though the water was deep enough to swim
the pony and [it even] came into the wagon bed.

     This being the time of the Civil War, when Friends refused to pay the
tax, the sheriff told Father he was going to take one of his horses the next morning
when he started back.  (This was the plan taken at that time, to take stock and sell
it to get money for the tax.)

     Father was very much worried as [to] what to do, as we were taking a
flock of sheep to the[ir] new home.  He decided to go another way and so did not lose
the horse.

     THE PRIMARY BRICK SCHOOL HOUSE.  This was built in 1835 and was in use
sixty-three years.  The brick used in building this school was made on the
Benjamin HOYLE farm, now the L. J. TABER farm [as of the early 1940s].  

     The plans were made by William GREEN, whose early life was spent in
England.  Thus, there was a similarity to the English buildings as there were
three rows of seats on each side of the room, each row being up one step from
the one below.  However, these were removed not long after we first went to
school in 1866, and new desks were put in.  James STEER and Sinclair SMITH
were the donors.

     After this change was made, it left the windows so high that we could
only see out at one end.  There seems to have been a time, before 1866, that
no school was kept [at least in this building], Peter SEARS, the grandfather
of William H. SEARS, having lived and died in the house.  The early teachers
we know were Isaac N. VAIL, Thompson FRAME, Lindley B. STEER and Lydia
MILLHOUSE, Mary Caleb BUNDY, and Elizabeth Smith LIVEZEY.

     The building was in good repair when taken down to give place to a more
modern one in 1898.

     CORN HUSKING.  Sixty or seventy years ago, the manner of gathering the
corn was very different from that of the present day.  Many farmers, instead
of putting it in shock, cut the top of the stalk just above the ear and used
it for fodder.  They snapped the ears off and hauled them to the barn to husk.
When the crops were large and they had large barns, [the corn] was placed in
long ricks [racks?] across the floor and the neighbors invited in to help husk
it at night.  After husking, a good supper was served quite late at night.

     The huskers rested on their knees as close together as they could work,
and there was always a rivalry to see who could first husk through the pile.
It was the task for the older men to rake back the husks as they accumulated.
     Around 1860, J. T. SCHOLFIELD made a business of hauling the husks to his
barn [where] they were shredded to be used in making mattresses, [then] baling
and shredding to Wheeling, West Virginia.  the motive power for the shredder
was a tred power large enough for two horses to walk on.  A large wagon bed
seven feet high and large enough to hold a ton of husks was drawn by a four-
horse team to deliver the husks, this having to be done in the winter when the
roads were very muddy.

     My first ride on a wagon like this was in 1864, when I was eight years
old, and we went from the Henry DOUDNA home on Sandy Ridge to the AARON home,
[which was] then the home of Jonathan T. SCHOLFIELD.

     In the winter of 1880, I was in partnership with Perley PICKETT and we
carried on the same business.  It was the practice in those days for the neighbors to
take the Boarding School scholars on a sled ride each winter.  It fell to my
lot to take twenty-four of the scholars in my load.  This wagon bed was too
high for them to see out and when the door was closed they were practically in
prison.

     On our return trip, two miles west of Barnesville, Ohio, the scholars
crowded too much to one side and the bed, being on bob sleds, upset and rolled the
scholars into an adjoining field and pitched me into a fence corner in the
snow.  There was no one hurt.

     Sarah Pickett WALTON is, as far as I know, the only one living of those
twenty-four scholars, after a lapse of sixty-one years.

     JAMES FRAME & GEORGE WASHINGTON.  More than fifty years ago, my
wife's father, William PICKETT, related this incident:  James FRAME, a great
uncle of his, during the Revolutionary War was brought into the presence of
George Washington by two soldiers.  

     [Washington] addressed James as follows:  "James, what are you doing
here?"   The reply was, "These two men brought me here because I refused to bear arms."

     Whereupon the Commander said to him, "Many a time have we drunk out of
the same cup and many a time have we slept together under the same blanket.  You
are at liberty to return to your home and help produce food for those who are
willing to fight."

     James FRAME told my father-in-law, William PICKETT, that he had assisted
George Washington when he was a surveyor.

     THE STEER NAME.  While my wife, Louisa D. STEER and myself were living in
Southern California, from 1866 to 1887, one day as I was driving in Los
Angeles, I saw on a sign the name Vacy STEER.  On making inquiry I found she
was an English woman, who later on gave me the following information:

     In the 10th or 11th century, when the Normans first attempted to invade
England, they found it difficult to make a landing on the stern and rockbound
coast of Cornwall.  After several unsuccessful attempts, a safe landing was
made and the man who guided the boat was given the name of STEER.

     She also informed us that in a little town in Cornwall, the family
history had been kept for five-hundred years.  The first record of the name
was found in the period from 1660 to 1665.  From that time to the present, we
have a complete line of records.  If these records are desired, write to
Warren E. Pickett, Washington, Pennsylvania and he can furnish a copy.  [This
offer was made in the early 1940s, so is just a wee bit out of date.]

     HAZARDS OF FARM LIFE.  When raising a barn on the farm of James STEER in
1865, there were one hundred and twenty-five men working.  Through the
carelessness of one man, a beam four by four and eight feet long fell from the
top story to the floor, striking a large man who wore a silk hat a glancing
lick, and then struck Chalkley BUNDY on the head and seriously injured him.

     He was carried into the house and placed on the couch, where he laid
until taken to his home.  I was but eight years old, but I remember seeing his
brother, John BUNDY, standing by him and I noticed how pale he was.
[Chalkley] recovered, and later married Debora BUNDY.  He died two years after
the accident, and it was this injury [that] shortened his life.

     In the fifth month, 1879, when moving a barn to what was known as the
lower farm, while putting the heavy sections of the roof with pole rafters in place,
owing to a defective worm-eaten timber, the entire building--thirty-six feet
long--collapsed, carrying twenty men down with it.  The only one of those who
was on the platform who was injured was David EDGERTON, who suffered a badly
sprained ankle.  I was near the eaves and was removing a pin that was in the
way, so when the barn spread, I fell through.  Though pinned to the ground, I
was able to make known my whereabouts.  The men soon removed the heavy
sections of roof and carried me and laid me on the lawn.  When the doctor
came, he found my spine was injured and informed me that I would never be able
to work again.  After lying in bed for six weeks, I gradually recovered until
I was able to manage my farm work.  Although I suffered with my back for over
thirty-five years, I had it straightened by the first chiropractor that came
to Barnesville.

     THE GIRLS BOARDING SCHOOL BUILT IN 1910.  It required a great deal of
work to repair the Stanton home to get it in readiness for the school, having
to lay a pipeline for several rods to connect with the Childrens Home water system, and
to overhaul the system in the house.  At the expiration of ten days, everything
was in readiness for the school.  The twenty-two girls and the teachers lodged in the
building.

     The exercises at the end of the term were held on the lawn.  A large barn
door was used for a platform on which the six girls graduating were seated.
With all the inconvenient ways of getting along, the teachers thought that the scholars
made as good progress as they would have done in the old building.

     There were two terms held before going to the new building the first of
the year in 1911.  This was a memorable experience, and enjoyed by all who had
a part in conducting the school.

___________________________________________________________________

Recaps and additional data:

WILLIAM G. STEER, the author of the article above (from pages 125 to 131 of
The Little Home Histories In Our Early Homes, Belmont County, Ohio), was the son
of JAMES STEER, JR. and MARY GREEN.  His birth on May 13, 1856 was reported in
the meeting minutes for Short Creek Monthly Meeting, Jefferson County, Ohio.
He married 1st LOUISA D. PICKETT on Apr 18, 1879 and married 2nd Eliza Hall on
May 7, 1925.
~~~~~
JAMES STEER, JR., the father of WILLIAM G. STEER (and the son of James Steer
and Ruth Wilson).  He was born in 1827 in Colerain, Ohio and died Mar 2, 1917
in Belmont County, Ohio.  [I apologize for not knowing my source for the dates
of birth and death here.  JLA]  
~~~~~
WILLIAM GREEN (the father-in-law of James Steer, Jr.; the wife of James was
Mary Green)
~~~~~
SAM BETTS (a colored man employed by James Steer to drive oxen)
~~~~~
LEWIS NAYLOR (a cane-grower and Quaker residing at Sandy Ridge)
~~~~~
RUTH BAILEY (a cousin of William G. Steer who helped in the production of
molasses at the James Steer farm)
~~~~~
BENJAMIN HOYLE (bricks used in the primary schoolhouse built in 1835 were made
on the Benjamin Hoyle farm.  By the 1940s, that parcel of land was known as
the L. J. Taber farm)
~~~~~
SINCLAIR SMITH (some time after 1866 he, along with James Steer, donated new
desks for the school house)
~~~~~
PETER SEARS, b. Apr 4, 1787 d. Jul 12, 1863 (prior to 1866, he lived and died
in a house that was later used as a school)
~~~~~
WILLIAM H. SEARS (a grandson of the Peter Sears identified above)
~~~~~
School teachers: ISAAC N. VAIL, THOMPSON FRAME, LINDLEY B. STEER,
LYDIA MILLHOUSE, MARY CALEB BUNDY, ELIZABETH SMITH LIVEZEY.
~~~~~
JONATHAN T. SCHOLFIELD (around 1860, he made a business of shredding corn
husks in his barn, then hauling them to Wheeling, West Virginia for sale as
mattress stuffing)
~~~~~
HENRY DOUDNA (in 1864, his home on Sandy Ridge was also the home of Jonathan
T. Scholfield)
~~~~~
PERLEY PICKETT (a partner with William G. Steer in a corn husk shredding
business during the winter of 1880)
~~~~~
SARAH PICKETT WALTON (one of 18 "boarding school scholars" who crowded into
William G. Steer's wagon bed for a winter sleigh ride in 1880; apparently the
only student of that ride still living when the above article was written in
the 1940s)
~~~~~
WILLIAM PICKETT (father of Louisa D. (Pickett) Steer and father-in-law of the
author, William G. Steer)
~~~~~
JAMES FRAME (a great uncle of William Pickett who claimed to have had personal
contact with George Washington prior to and during the Revolutionary War)
~~~~~
WARREN E. PICKETT, Washington, Pennsylvania (possibly a brother of the
author's wife)
~~~~~
JOHN BUNDY b. Feb 17, 1813, d. Sep 18, 1898 (fifth child of William Bundy and
Sarah Overman; was at the James Steer barn-raising when his brother, Chalkley
Bundy, was injured)
~~~~~
CHALKLEY BUNDY b. Feb 24, 1823, d. Dec 1, 1866 (tenth child of William Bundy
and Sarah Overman.  Chalkley was injured in a accident at a barn-raising on
the James Steer farm in 1865.  Although he seemed to recover from the
accident, it was blamed for his early death the following year)
~~~~~
DEBORAH H. (HANSON) BUNDY (second wife of Chalkley Bundy; married him Dec 7,
1864)
~~~~~
DAVID EDGERTON (suffered a badly-sprained ankle in an accident in 1879 while
engaged in moving a barn on the James Steer farm.  The author, William G.
Steer, injured his spine in the same accident and was laid up for six weeks)
~~~~~
Sources: 
     (1) "Little Home Histories in our Early Homes, Belmont County, Ohio",
pages 125-131.
     (2) "Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy", Vol 4.
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THAT'S IT.  THOUGHT MAYBE OTHERS WOULD ENJOY THEM TOO
Barb